The Backyard Blues Boys

Formed in the fall of 2008, the Backyard Blues boys started out with the original 5 members - Wade Hilts and Garren Epley of Franklin High School - and Louie Leager, Jason Morrison and Reuben Unrau of Cleveland High School. Soon after forming, the group decided to enter a band competition and began to work up material for their first public appearance. During that time, they added Jillian Looney, another student from Cleveland, to the group. Jillian's rich, jazz tinged vocals offered new possibilities for the band to broaden their sound. Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

Formed in the fall of 2008, the Backyard Blues boys started out with the original 5 members - Wade Hilts and Garren Epley of Franklin High School - and Louie Leager, Jason Morrison and Reuben Unrau of Cleveland High School. Soon after forming, the group decided to enter a band competition and began to work up material for their first public appearance. During that time, they added Jillian Looney, another student from Cleveland, to the group. Jillian's rich, jazz tinged vocals offered new possibilities for the band to broaden their sound. The expanded group, with Jillian as their female vocalist, won the Cleveland Battle of the Bands in the spring of 2009 with a stunning version of "The Truth", by Handsome Boy Modeling School. During the following summer, the BBBs began to collaborate with Lucas Biespiel, an accomplished musician and song-writer in his own rite. Lucas had already recored dozens of original and cover songs independently, and had established himself as a top local young music talent. The BBBs backed Lucas for a gig at the 2009 Portland Waterfront Blues Festival - the combination of Lucas' soulful vocals and bluesmanship of the boys was a perfect match. More collaborative gigs would follow at venues around Portland, such as Mississsippi Pizza and Arrivederci Wine & Jazz, and then (nearly a year later) Lucas, also a Cleveland student, at last officially became a member of the BBB band. In the summer of 2010, the BBBs were spread to the wind as several members took extensive travels away from Portland, and the entire band was not able to perform together through June or July. It wasn't until mid August that they were all back together, back at work at Double-Nickel Studios jamming and preparing for August gigs. During this period of separation, Samantha Hooper joined those BBBs still in Portland, bringing her own R&B vocal influences to the mix. Ryan Short also stepped in to cover at lead guitar while Reuben was out of the country. They came back with a bang in September playing around at their old favorite venues to please their blues fans who had been longing for their return. In January 2011 they released their debut album "Tradin Twelves" which featured many crowd favorites. The album was critically acclaimed by the Cascade Blues Association, with CBA President Greg Johnson calling it, "a listening pleasure...a band with ten times the experience of The Backyard Blues Boys would be proud to record them in such style and class." A film was released on the making of "Tradin' Twelves" by friend and classmate of the band Sutton Raphael. The documentary (under the same name as the album) won the Cleveland Film Festival and is available for viewing online (see the Music tab at the top of this page). Summer 2011 was an eventful one for the band, as they performed on the main stage of the Waterfront Blues Festival, in addition to returning to the same venues where they built their name. The BBBs also made trips out of Oregon for the first time, playing in Seattle as well as San Francisco and its suburbs (where the band members were dubbed "Legends of Foster City"). Currently, the band is in limbo as most of the members just began their studies at various colleges and universities (not two members are in the same city), but anticipation has begun for their return, set for the summer of 2012. More here: Meet the Band Official Website: The Backyard Blues Boys Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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…shrink me down again